We have climate change reporters in Michigan, but none of them can tell you how the climate has changed. The biggest ecological story in Michigan is happening right now in Lansing, as a species of elephant nears extinction.
The “Republicans for Whitmer” strain of Republican, once popular in capital-city news stories, is a rarity these days. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer might tell you this herself.
By now, it’s a truth so obvious that the Detroit Free Press, Whitmer’s lieutenant governor, and AG Dana Nessel have all spoken it: Whitmer should call a special election in the 35th Senate District.
For about 200 days, 270,000 taxpayers haven’t had a senator, not since Kristen McDonald Rivet resigned to take a seat in Congress.
Whitmer has sole constitutional discretion to call a special election. And she hasn’t.
The why is obvious enough: In this climate, and with House Rep. Bill G. Schuette on the ballot, he would win the seat. The Senate would be deadlocked 19-19, and the House is controlled by Republicans.
But look at the thing behind the thing.
When you consider Whitmer’s history, she wouldn’t necessarily see Republican control of the Legislature as a bad thing.
That she does signals that things have changed in the Grand Old Party. These aren’t your older brother’s Republicans.
It was the 2021-22 batch of Republicans in Michigan’s 101st Legislature who were most aligned with the governor.
In 2022, an election year with the governor’s office and every House and Senate seat on the ballot, Whitmer signed 278 new laws. Everybody in Lansing had plenty of other stuff to do. Yet they collaborated on 278 new laws.
That means the stories you read back then, about discord between Whitmer and the Lansing Republicans, were fake. Kayfabe. Designed to drive clicks and make readers think that Lansing is a news town with real conflict. In fact, Whitmer and the Republicans worked incredibly well together.
Those Republicans thought they could co-exist with Whitmer.
Meanwhile, Whitmer was plotting their demise. She won the governor’s race by such a wide margin that the Legislature flipped blue too. Dominion is logical, even biblical. Coexistence was a dream held by weak men.
Even so, after Whitmer waylaid the Republicans in November, they gave her one last parting gift: $85M in tax funding for the QLine train in Detroit. The three-mile train from nowhere to nowhere is on the taxpayer teat through 2039.
Republicans like then-Sen. Wayne Schmidt, a term-limited Traverse City Republican, were happy to do it.
“We need a healthy downtown Detroit or the state as a whole suffers,” Schmidt told The Detroit News. “We do know if we don’t work together—northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula helping Detroit—they’ll never be in a position to help us.”
Schmidt and the 2022 Republicans could be incredibly generous with taxpayer money.
In 2024, with Democrats holding “all the gavels” in Lansing, Whitmer only signed 275 new laws. Less than when Republicans ran the show. How is that even possible?
Those two years of Democrat control of Lansing, the first time they’d been so dominant in 40 years, was enough for Michigan to want change.
In November, the Michigan House was the only legislative body in America to flip Republican. The only reason the Senate didn’t is because it wasn’t on the ballot. And the only reason there’s no special Senate election is because Whitmer won’t call one.
Republican voters still index too much pride and hurt to the events of 2022. But the Republican surrender in the Legislature, combined with Whitmer’s incumbent status, combined with three Democrat-favoring ballot measures, was a toxic and unbeatable combination. Nobody needs to steal an election when you’re giving it away.
But 2022 was a long time ago. Whitmer knows this better than anyone. It’s time to adjust our mental models. The Republican Surrender Caucus has been retired.
It’s not Republicans that Whitmer fears. It’s the new batch of Republicans. The ones who aren’t looking to make friends or get headlines for bipartisanship.
James David Dickson is host of the Enjoyer Podcast. Join him in conversation on X @downi75.
